Selesnya Turtle Overlords

And some thoughts on being two color

There are not many cards in Foundations that immediately interested me, so I have continued my exploration of all things Fecund Greenshell.

I have been having continued good success with my Simic version of the deck that I discuss in detail here:

Simic Greenshell Card by Card Power Rankings

With the increasing presence of Thoughtseize decks on the back of Unholy Annex, I became interested in brewing a version of Turtle that runs Up the Beanstalk to help ensure victory in the lower resource, grindy games those decks create.

Beanstalk will also help improve the Control matchup and allow me to experiment with different gameplans for the Phoenix matchup.

The obvious cards to pair with Up the Beanstalk are the new Overlords like we see in Enigmatic and the new Zur deck in Pioneer.

I took more inspiration from Seth Manfield’s Standard list from Worlds. This deck is much more my style, being a rampy midrange deck. It also is doing what I want to do of not being all in on Up the Beanstalk, instead primarily relying on the Beanstalk plus Overlord of the Hauntwoods interaction being enough.

Simic Version

I started with modifying my Simic deck, by adding Beanstalk and Overlord of the Hauntwoods. I figured this would be a good fit since the deck also runs Blue Sun’s Zenith which can be a 5+ Mana Value card as another Beanstalk trigger. I was also trying Set Adrift in the Leyline Binding role of 1 mana interaction that triggers Beanstalk.

Decklist Link

While I was very excited for the deck, in practice it played awkwardly. The Hauntwoods in particular felt bad. I would be on the backfoot and Hauntwoods would not help stabilize.

I think in particular the Hauntwoods did not play nice with Glasspool by making the three slot crowded and being awkward on the mana with the 1GG cost instead of the 2G cost of other cards I have there.

Golgari Version

One other issue I had with Hauntwoods is it would sometimes generate a ton of lands for me, but I would run out of things to do with the mana. So I thought to myself “Tasigur”. It is a one mana Beanstalk and Greenshell trigger, that helps stabilize, and acts as a solid mana sink.

Also, Sheoldred triggers Greenshell if we’re going Golgari.

Decklist Link

Well the less said about this deck the better. It was terrible.

Selesnya Version

This is where things finally came together.

I have had success with Selesnya versions of Turtle decks.

Selesnya Turtle

Selesnya also gives access to Overlord of the Mistmoors as a second competent Overlord.

With no Glasspool Mimics I leaned more into the 1 to 3 curve, running more Gilded Goose.

The mana in Selesnya is also awesome thanks to Hushwood Verge because you want untapped Green early and multi pip White late, which is exactly what Hushwood Verge provides.

I tried an initial version that ran two Overlord of the Mistmoors and two Beza in the four slot. The deck felt good, but like it needed a bit more top end, so I cut the Bezas for the full four Mistmoors.

Also, thanks to an idea from Krism_23 in the Faithless Brewing discord, I added a couple Gwenna thanks to its strong interaction with the Overlords, but I also figured it would play well with Greenshell.

This is the list I ended up with.

Decklist Link

I took it into a league and comfortably got a trophy. The deck felt great.

The Elspeth Conquers Death in the board were highly speculative, but were excellent. Playing well against the meta and allowing me to shift the deck in a more interactive, big midrange value direction post board.

Selesnya Turtle Overlords vs Simic Greenshell

I am not sure, which is better this deck or the Simic Greenshell deck in my pervious article.

Simic Greenshell Card by Card Power Rankings

I have more reps with the Simic version, so I am more confident in it, but this Selesnya version felt very strong.

There is one thing I can say for sure, this Selesnya deck is much less stressful to play.

The Simic version I am constantly running low on time. Stressed trying to figure out how to turn a hodgepodge of pseudo creature removal into something real.

Also, constantly needing to make early critical decisions on the flow of the game to decide between Dreamdew for draw or stun or figure out if this is a damage win or a mill win game.

Then, constantly chump blocking to barely stay alive to have a big borderline combo Greenshell plus Glasspool Mimic turn.

This Selesnya version is much more just ramp curve out and win backed by a few efficient removal spells.

As such, if you are just getting into trying out these Greenshell Desert decks I have been brewing, I would recommend starting with this one.

Selesnya Turtle Overlords vs Other Overlord decks

I have limited experience with the other Beanstalk + Overlord decks in the format like Enigmatic and Zur Overlords, but I suspect this deck is stronger.

This is because this is a two color deck while those are four or five color lists.

Why being two color matters so much in Pioneer (in order of importance)

1. Untapped Lands

2. Able to run lands that give you value (In this deck I have Arid Archway that is essentially a 1 mana draw 2, Conduit Pylons for surveils, multiple Boseiju and Emeria’s Call)

3. Rarely run into mana issues in terms of having the right color of mana for your spells

You need to be getting massive value out of being more than two colors to be willing to give up on all those benefits. (There are not many additional benefits of being one color over two color, which is why you do not see many mono-colored decks because adding the second color ups the decks power level for low cost.)

In the early turns, while Enigmatic is playing tapped lands, I am playing one mana ramp, and I am not giving up much relative to Enigmatic in terms of value to do that.

The tapped lands and lack of early turn plays that affect the board are in particular a liability when you are on the draw. Half your games are on the draw, you do not want to be giving up those games, which is why I focus my brewing on decks like this one that play well on the draw.